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Ambient Energy LED lighting contest!

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Steve Conner

Mon Feb 12 2007, 11:32AM

Registered Member #30 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706

Hi all,

I noticed that CM recently managed to light an LED with his atmospheric electricity collector. And, I seem to remember that other board members have played with similar devices in the past.

So, your mission should you choose to accept it, is to light an LED using "Free" energy. By that I mean renewable energy, or energy that would otherwise have gone to waste such as ambient RF or EMI from your electronic toys.

For the neatest, cheapest, most powerful, and generally most clever energy harvesting device, I offer the prize of a 1 watt Luxeon (white) with optic.

Marko

Mon Feb 12 2007, 12:28PM

Registered Member #89 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 02:40PM
Location: Zadar, Croatia
Posts: 3145

Hi Steve

Sounds fun, except I'm not sure if anything will beat solar cells... maybe in price if someone has luck, but in power density, hardly.

Also, wouldn't it be a bit unfair if someone happens to have a GSM network transmitting antenna or 440kV power lines passing near his window, or something of that sort?

ragnar

Mon Feb 12 2007, 01:06PM

Registered Member #63 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 06:18AM
Location:
Posts: 1425

**digs out AM radio coils**

Steve Conner

Mon Feb 12 2007, 01:35PM

Registered Member #30 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706

Firkragg, we'll put it to the vote, and if anyone has 440kV power lines going past their house, they just have to be honest and own up to it.

Solar cells are a good solution, but they lose on geek points by being too easy.

ShawnLG

Mon Feb 12 2007, 02:29PM

Registered Member #286 Joined: Mon Mar 06 2006, 04:52AM
Location:
Posts: 399

"I offer the prize of a 1 watt Luxeon (white) with optic." Ooooo. I always wanted one of them. Im in!

Dr. Shark

Mon Feb 12 2007, 03:44PM

Registered Member #75 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 09:30AM
Location: Montana, USA
Posts: 711

I am also in, not so much for the LED (well, a 5W luxeon would be interesting, but 1 puny Watt?) but for the challenge.

Solar cells are out for me (I live in Finnland, remember?), so I am currently favoring some type of mechanical device coupled to a small alternator. Wind power might be a good option, since there is a lot of it flowing around, and some cute designs already exist

which could be adapted.

For additional geekyness and indoor use I am also pondering some kind of LTD Stirling engine - temperature differentials exist almost everywhere, and a proper engine is a lot more fun than a simple Peltier-based thermoelectric generator.

stop4stuff

Mon Feb 12 2007, 04:05PM

Registered Member #64 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 06:25AM
Location: Southampton, UK
Posts: 68

Here's one I made earlier - A weight driven generator using Lego
Write up -

discussion -

& video -

Powers a 3mm 15,000mcd white LED for approx 6.5 mins on one drop of the weight...
cheap...mmm... Lego can get expensive
powerful... not really... mW
'free' energy... sort of, depends if one can lift 0.5kg

but it is a "most clever energy harvesting device" (imho)

Mon Feb 12 2007, 04:29PM

Banned on April 7, 2007
Registered Member #277 Joined: Fri Mar 03 2006, 10:15AM
Location: Florida
Posts: 157

Steve:

Good contest, except you should up the challenge to see who can produce the most hydrogen over a one month period, something useful, AND the production technique should have NO geographic limitations AND factor in the maintainence costs of each approach. That is if you are interested in useful data. I'll look forward to seeing how much can be produced. You can be assured that everyone here knows that when the sun is shining and if you live in the right places PV is great (but the concensus is that PV efficency deminishes with time and most agree they must be replaced after about 30 years constituting a perpetual investment cycle, factor that into your contest too), or that when the wind is blowing and if you live in the right places, windmills are great, if you don't mind substancial reoccuring maintainence costs (I've built many windmills, including one with 16 foot blades, lots of maintanence costs involved over time, for the big ones anyway). Make your contest like the above and you'll end up with something useful other than just an LED lighting contest. Think about it. CM

Dr. Shark

Mon Feb 12 2007, 05:13PM

Registered Member #75 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 09:30AM
Location: Montana, USA
Posts: 711

Hey Paul, I absolutely dig your weight lifting generator! IT kind of reminds me of those old clocks, where you had to pull up a weight once a day. Too bad you allready completed it before the competition started, so you cannot enter

CM,I definitely appreciate your proposal to make this contest more "useful", but I think producing hydrogen is a bit overkill. It's not really related to _producing_ energy, but rather _storing_ energy, and that does not relate to the "renewability" of the energy but just complicates things. I definitely agree on the geographical issue though, and I also think that factoring in reliablity and ruggedness in addition to geekiness and neatness.

Avalanche

Mon Feb 12 2007, 06:43PM

Registered Member #103 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 08:16PM
Location: Derby, UK
Posts: 845

This thread has caused my head to start overflowing with ways to light an LED

most of which I'll probably never get around to trying...

A rectenna on a towerblock roof near the microwave gear might work, or as for the solar cells being too 'easy' - home-made cells might add a bit more 1337ness to the solar approach

What about a microphone array.....in a Wetherspoons pub... (brainiac pub science time!)

I'll have a go at this (probably at work tomorrow) if I can think up anything strange enough! A few months ago we were looking at battery-less solutions for things like room sensors, which harvest energy from the environment in various ways, usually charging a supercap

We might even have some samples somewhere.

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